If anyone out there can explain to me what is happening to the world economy, I would be grateful. One minute it seems as if we are going to hit bankruptcy, our numbers fall so low and then……….completely out of the blue the numbers of students booking into the Mariposa are rocketing. I am not counting my chickens as anything can happen between now and an improvement in the bank account. But it really does feel more hopeful. And who knows why????

We are so booked through Nov and Dec that we are looking for alternative accomodations!!! My lawyer has a lovely house in la Concha where we can rent rooms (with ensuite bathrooms), plus we have found a great little wooden house, very Nicaragua style, very basic – dirt floors and outside latrine & cooker) with the MOST AMAZING views over the Laguna de Masaya and some wonderful trees right in the back yard. One possibility is to convert my room in the Mariposa for students and for me to move out……..hmmmmm, definitely has its pros and cons as an idea!

OK, some pics.

Rooms for rent in my lawyer's house!

My retirement house?

The view from my retirement option!

Happy to be in this beautiful space

The last couple of months or so have been a little up and down for the Mariposa but, in general, I would have to say that after nearly three years of being open things are really settling down and functioning well. The Spanish school part, under Bergman’s expert direction, goes from strength to strength and we are busy right now developing our own “Mariposa” materials, complete with butterfly logo!! The idea is to try and incorporate not only more and more vocabulary etc reflecting life in Nicaragua (most textbooks are oriented to either Spain or the whole of Latin America) but also to link in the language part of the school with the afternoon/day activities. So, to give an obvious example, if the afternoon activity is cooking tortillas with Melba, then the morning class and the materials will provide vocab etc to link with that. We are also building a couple more outdoor classrooms (one will have a roof made of a wonderful traditional wood tile which I just happened to come across whilst out and about and was about to be used as firewood. Bought it on the spot).

Dona Aura in her garden - full of medicinal plants, here in front of a cacao tree

We are also starting to get a lot of interest in the volunteer scheme which I put on the previous blog. It is going to be quite a lot of work maintaining all of the individual placements and hopefully I can eventually find someone to help me with that. I am hoping to start another scheme as soon as possible – our “Buy and Sell to Help” scheme (not the catchiest of titles, I admit – if anyone has a better idea!!). The idea is to suggest to people who visit us that they buy a selection of the smaller, lightweight, easy to carry handicrafts which are in such plentiful supply around here – including maracas, pottery, wooden jewellery, baskets made from recycled newspaper, natural organic skin care products, leather goods – there is just a ton of possibilities. Dona Aura, (in the photo above), for example, makes great papaya and avocade soap, shampoo and skin cream. The students would then take their purchases back to the US or wherever and sell them at higher prices (a kind of Tupperware party amongst friends/acquaintances would do it!). The difference would be returned to me to be ploughed into projects here. Good idea, heh? Though actually I have to admit it is not my idea originally – it is thanks to a British accountant called Nick. Just need someone to help me do it…….

Mixed planting

The buildings and gardens look lovely as ever – I am constantly amazed at how beautiful it is here. The photo above is a great example of how we try and plant stuff with food-producers mixed in with flowering plants. The tall, thin trees are papayas (we get the biggest ones I ever saw), the broad leaves in the foreground are an edible root plant called quesquique (like a potato), there is also in the pic a guyaba tree which is just starting to fruit. Birdlife is flourishing – just yesterday in the late afternoon, glass of white wine in hand, I saw a family of guardabarrancos who have bred here in a bank of earth just outside room 1! Plus a group of woodpeckers, little yellow seedeaters and my beloved blue tanagers. Oh, and our freed parakeets flying around as usual. We are building up to setting free more of our larger parrots, now that their wings have grown back and they are flying well. We have four bright lime green baby lizards living in the lettuce patch. And suddenly, out of the blue, three gavilans (small, brown and white hawks) paid us a visit – they didn’t stay long, just long enough to freak out the parrots who all flew screaming to one end of their cage. I am convinced that one of the three was the hawk we released a while ago, he was certainly around here until recently as I would meet him on my walks in my neighbour’s land with the dogs. I am sure he came back to introduce his family to us! Our group of four white faced – capuchin – monkeys continue to delight everyone, they are really intelligent and we have to give them something new to do (or destroy) every day to keep them happy. Latest discovery is they like to have raw chillies – they break them open and rub them all over their bodies, especially under the armpits and around the butt region, it seems it is a way of getting rid of ticks and fleas!!

We are also working hard to build up the organic produce side of things – our tomato patch is a little slow because it doesn’t get quite enough sun – we simply have too many trees here at the Mariposa! But there are plenty of tomatoes, just still a little on the green side. We have bought 7 chickens whose speciality is laying eggs, beautiful brown ones – kind of your classic hen figure! – and they are certainly laying. It’s really great that we don’t buy anymore factory farmed eggs now. We have also acquired laying turkeys now, they are quite a noisy addition but it is fun watching the male puff up and fan out his tale feathers when he is protecting his two females. I use my motorcycle helmet to defend myself!! And then there are the duck eggs…..oh, life is never boring.

Turkeys, ducks, chickens. guinea fowl........

The new chick(en) house

The difficult side of things continues to be problems with low numbers of students and we seem to have had a real run of bad luck with cancellations. That is something new and I am wondering if it also connected with the general economic downturn i.e. people panic at the last minute. Whatever the reason, it is very hard on us. However, it seems as if every teacher in the US is coming here for Thanksgiving dinner (no jokes about the turkeys, please – I am afraid it will just be one of those butterball jobs like last year). So I am hoping that will be the upward turning point for us. At least for a while. The staff here are, as usual, wonderful in their support and understanding of the situation.

A last piece of good news – an update of Daniel’s progress (readOne last piece of go the earlier blog on his story) – Daniel is now studying electrical mechanics at the University of Nicaragua in Jinotepe full time. He loves it and just came second in the termly exam. He comes in here to help us out at weekends (the Mariposa pays him afull time salary still to support his family while he studies) and, indeed, to have  aquiet place to study. He has made terrific progress from his gangland days……who says folk can’t change?

Daniel doing the washing!

What follows is pure unadulterated propaganda – forgive me! The volunteer/homestay scheme is however an exciting  way of expanding the Mariposa without building any more on our precious bit of land. It has also been a great way to get to know more of and about the local community – Manuel, the mayor for example, invited me after our meeeting discussing re-aforestation projects to accompany him to an event which could only happen here in Nicaragua. As part of their rural development campaign the Sandinista governemnet is giving cows, pigs, chickens to poor rural families and Manuel invited me to watch the cows being handed out. All sounds simple enough – but once inside the La Concha baseball stadium with 100 or so cows (many of them with small, utterly terrified calves) and all thundering around like crazy, being chased by a few hapless young men trying desperately to lasso them. They are cattle from the north and, as such, are unlikely to have ever seen a stretch of wire fencing much less travelled crammed together squashed up in a truck only to be released into the space of a baseball pitch! They were mad as hell. The families awaiting their precious cow were standing on the sidelines also looking completely terrified – they must have been wondering how on earth they were supposed to get this enormous, wild beast back to the finca! I watched for  a while and then, as a vegetarian, gave my apologies. On the way out I passed a couple of guys struggling to tie a wayward bullock to a lampost.  The whole event, like so much here, was utterly unpredictable and just – well, just LIFE!!! As it happens. Sadly I didn’t take the camera.

Manuel, La Concha's Mayor

So now for the advertsing bit…….

VOLUNTARY WORK AT THE MARIPOSA – The Mariposa operates a uniquely rewarding scheme for visitors to Nicaragua who wish to contribute directly to the local community and environment by doing volunteer work.

La Concepcion (also known as La Concha) is a small, laid back, friendly town in the hills just south of Managua. It has a population of around 35,000 – but it doesn’t feel that big as the houses are spread out over a wide geographical area. And almost every house has its mango and coconut trees out back, giving La Concha its unique green surroundings. With a traditional Spanish-style park and church at its centre, it is an unusual mix of urban and rural. We can take advantage of this and offer placements with an urban flavour alongside options on local farms or undertaking re-aforestation projects.

Thanks to our employment policy and the projects already undertaken by the Mariposa within the community of La Concha, we have developed a wide range of contacts from the town Mayor to farmers in local co-operatives. We can easily arrange a whole range of different types of individual placements for our visitors.

What is so unique about the Mariposa volunteer scheme?

• You combine volunteer work with Spanish classes – we offer 20 hours formal classes (2 hours of grammar and 2 hours of conversation) within the delightful garden surroundings of the Mariposa. For newcomers to Nicaragua we also recommend starting your time here with a week or two joining in with the Mariposa programme of afternoon and weekend activities in order to familiarise yourself with Nicaragua, its history and culture and with the immediate surroundings of La Concha.
• We do not place groups of volunteers – only individuals. This ensures flexibility to meet your learning needs and that you do not spend your time here mainly interacting with groups of other Westerners – on the contrary, we maximise the opportunities for you to work alongside and so get to know individual workers in La Concha.
• In keeping with the Mariposa principle of maximising local employment opportunities, we do not use volunteers to replace local workers. Instead, we place each individual volunteer alongside a Nicaraguan worker (this of course has the additional benefit of improving your Spanish)
• We offer opportunities for volunteers to become immersed in the community of La Concha by working within the community alongside workers from local organisations – such as working alongside a pre-school teacher in a school, working in the health centre, or even with a bee project – so you can really get out there to see for yourself, experience and understand how the community functions.
• We also have a range of volunteer opportunities within the more protected setting of the Mariposa – you similarly work alongside one of the Mariposa workers.
• Volunteers live in homestays with local families (all known to the Mariposa). This of course enhances the opportunities to get to know a Nicaraguan family and practice that Spanish!
• Weekly de-briefing sessions are held within the Mariposa, in English, so you can share the upside of your placement, reflecting on learning aspects. Also to help you make sense of some of those more demanding and difficult experiences (led by Dr Paulette Goudge who has a PhD in Development issues). You can browse the excellent selection of books on both Nicaragua and development and aid issues which are available in the Mariposa library.
• Because we work on a purely individual basis and not with groups we can offer you a placement suitable to your particular needs, subject to availability. You can also opt to do a combination of Mariposa activities and placement; or a combination of two or more different placements.
• We can offer you placements doing practical work within the Mariposa for as little as one week, but we ask for a longer time commitment if you prefer to work with people, suggested minimum one month.
• Placements vary as to their availability – check with Paulette – paulette.goudge@googlemail.com

Currently available placements

• Teaching English – the local secondary school (across the road from the Mariposa) welcomes help with both formal grammar classes and, especially important, offering conversation to small groups of students. Some of the Mariposa staff are also keen to improve their English
• Pre-school children reading and writing – both rural and urban schools need people to work alongside their teachers to help small groups of children (primarily pre-school and primary age) improve their reading and writing skills. We also support a project offering reading groups to children outside school hours.
• Health – There are always placements available for nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, laboratory assistants, social workers. Preventive health care workers are also welcome.

The chiefs of La Concha's health centre - Arlen & Mercedes

• Town hall – 5 local municipalities (La Concha, Nidiri, Ticuantepe, El Crucero and Managua) have joined together, supported by the Norwegian government, to undertake a re-aforestation project designed particularly to help water conservation (available until end of 2009). The Town hall would also welcome help with reception duties and working on the civil register.
• Los Quinchos – is a project working with ex-street children and is a short bus ride away from the Mariposa. If you are interested in doing a placement there, you should check out their website – www.losquinchos.com. You can combine that with classes etc at the Mariposa.
• We always have a range of things happening at the Mariposa. Going on right now – a small literacy project for our staff; building a traditional roof on an outdoor classroom; digging a latrine; farm work – caring for fruit & coffee trees, chickens, tomatoes; caring for our rescued animals – horses, dogs, cats, monkeys, parrots; small-scale re-aforestation; gardening work; organising cleaning brigades. Occasional help from someone with computer skills would also be greatly appreciated!

Ismael out checking the mariposa tomato plot

• The Mariposa also funds and builds small-scale constructions, requested by the community. At present we are completing a latrine in a primary school and will shortly start a project re-siting a water tank & pipes for another local primary school – start date approx 1^st Sept.

Finally, Gabriel and Henrique completing the latrine for the Panama school

• Volunteers are welcome to help with any of the Mariposa’s on-going work or project initiatives and we also welcome suggestions as to where we might put our energy and available resources next!

What we ask from you

• Above all, an ability to reflect on how things work – or don’t work – in Nicaragua (the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere) and the reasons why. Good health is essential and an ability to go with the flow is invaluable.
• An understanding that though we work closely with the organisations to ensure that your placement runs as smoothly as possible – from both your point of view and the organisations’ –  we cannot offer guarantees. Plans often have to be changed in Nicaragua due to unforeseen weather or other contingencies. Please note that we reserve the right to terminate a placement.

• Depending on the placement, at least a basic knowledge of Spanish is generally advisable. The Mariposa is an excellent Spanish school and we can orient your classes to the needs of your placement.
• Placements with the health authority require a copy of your professional certificate and a reference from your university, hospital or other working location. These need to be faxed to us before you arrive here.
• Teaching English placements require evidence of a TEFL qualification (except conversation practice).
• Any placement which involves children under 15 years requires two appropriate references.
• All placements require that you have your own internationally valid insurance covering illness, accident, theft etc and a liability disclaimer.
• Volunteers with Los Quinchos need to follow their application procedures – see www.losquinchos.com
• The majority of the placements are within walking distance from the Mariposa or a short bus ride away (fares are around 10 cents, you are responsible) – for placements further afield we can arrange the loan of a bicycle or even a horse!
• For more detailed information write to Paulette – paulette.goudge@googlemail.com

PRICES FOR VOLUNTEERS:

• Per person per week (7 nights):           $250
• Per person per month (4 weeks):         $800  (a saving of $200)
• For 3 months:         $2000 (a saving of $1000!)
• This price includes:
  • Homestay with a local family
  • 3 meals per day
  • Organized and supported volunteer placement
  • 20 hours of  Spanish class per week

Today is the 18th July – known in Nicaragua as the “dia de alegria” – the day of happiness. It was the day that, 30 years ago, the last dictator of the Somoza dynasty, which ruled Nicaragua for almost half a century, left Nicaragua for asylum in Paraguay. In his luggage, he packed every cordoba and dollar stolen from the public exchequer and his 7 favourite parotts. The following day the Sandinistas marched into Managua, taking over power. To quote Eduardo Galeano, they “found a country in ruins, without schools or hospitals, no state institutions, no sewers or drinking water, sick with TB and malaria, where one in five children died” (thanks to the Nicaraguan Solidarity Campaign’s info sheet for this quote and some of the following statistics). Tomorrow everyone from the Mariposa will go to the Plaza de la Revolucion in Managua to help celebrate – everyone except, that is, Guillermina who is still hugely traumatised by the sound of fire crackers, of which there will undoutedly be many. Her trauma is of course an acute reminder for me of the personal tradegies which are the direct result of poverty, tyranny and oppression. We think her parents were killed in a Contra massacre in around 1987…..

Two images of 19th July 2009

Bergman and I give a Wednesday afternoon history class twice a month – he does the Spanish, me the English kind-of-tanslation, really me interjecting my own views!!! I always emerge drained and exhausted. We call the class Nicaraguan history 1900 to the present but really it is the history as much, if not more, of the US and the UK. Indeed, it is a kind of model of how Western power has operated for more or less the last 500 years in order to keep the “Third World” in check.  To quote Galeano again, from his book “Open Veins of Latin America” (apparently Hugo Chavez gave this book to Barack Obama – it is easily one of the best books I have ever read and I hope he reads it too); “Latin America is the region of open veins. Everything, from the discovery until our times, has always been transmuted into European – or later United States – capital, and as such has accumulated in distant centres of power. Everything: the siol, its fruits and its mineral rich depths, the people and their capacity to work and to consume, natural resources and human resources”. That just about sums it up……

In 1912 the US marines came into Nicaragua for the first time – the then Liberal government (ironically another Zelaya) had committed the error of insisting that American companies pay their due share of taxes…..this was unacceptable. They did not leave until the mid-1930s after a protracted struggle with Sandino who was the inspiration for the Sandinistas. Important to stress, especially given subsequent publicity, that neither Sandino nor the vast majority of Sandinistas were or are communists or marxists – their driving force is nationalism in the basic sense of wanting US troops OUT of here, plus a kind of reforming zeal influenced as much by the (North) American declaration of independence and liberation theology as socialism. But I guess if thinking the campesinos should be taught to read and write is communist, then so be it. One of the founders of the Sandinistas, Carlos Fonseca, stressed the importance of teaching literacy to campesinos so they couldn’t be thrown off their land just because they couldn’t produce written documentation as proof of ownership. Somoza and his followers enriched themselves enormously using this tactic, now being used today by unscrupulous foreign speculators who are buying Pacific coast land at knock-down prices. (I know of a fishing village in Northen Nicaragua where land is being bought from impoverished fisher-folk for $1,500 per acre and then appearing practically the next day on the internet for 10 times that amount . Plus ca change!!!) One of first things the Sandinistas did after taking over in 1979 was to send out literacy brigades to every corner of the countryside – illiteracy was reduced from 52% to 12% – maybe we should update Fonseca and send out brigades to help people fathom out the internet. Free education and health care were introduced for the first time.

The hug of death

The above photo shows Somoza as head of the US trained and funded national Guard with his arm around Sandino – who had been persuaded to come into Managua for peace talks. Somoza had already decided, when this photo was taken, to assasinate him. Hence the title “abrazo de muerte” or “hug of death”.

Ronald Reagan, supported to the hilt by superloyal ally M. Thatcher, would have none of the new Sandinista government. He consistently portrayed Nicaragua as a hardline “communist dictatorship” which “oppresses its people and threatens its neighbours” (24. March 1984) and “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the security and foreign policy of the US”. It helps to remember when reading this kind of stuff that Nicaragua had a population at that time of a little over 3 million…….nonetheless, Reagan imposed a total economic embargo on Nicaragua and of course armed and tarined the Contra to fight a war against the Sandinistas which lasted ten years. BY the end of the 80’s some 50,000 Nicaraguans had been killed, amongst them Guillermina’s parents.

Guillermina learning Spanish

Even though the Contra did not reach this area around La Concha there is hardly a family unaffected by the war. The more I talk to people, as my Spanish slowly and painfully improves(!) I learn more and more about the extent of loss and suffering caused directly by US/UK policies.  And what is really extraordinary is the resilience and good humour shown towards us Brits and North Americans who choose to either live and work here or just to visit – there is never any resentment or animosoity no matter how severe the injustice people have lived through. I think every visitor to the Mariposa would testify to that.

That is what fundamentally moves me to be here and to keep on trying to bring as many resources into Nicaragua as possible (after all we owe an immense debt to this and other “Third World” countries) – oh, plus of course I love it!!! To finish a wonderful photo (all the photos are thanks to Brian) of Don Wilbur – an ex-guerilla Sandinista fighter who is now a small producer of pineapples. He has no electricity, no running water and lives in just two small rooms with his wife and child – the Mariposa visits him once  amonth and he has consistently refused to accept any money in exchange for a fascinating afternoon learing all about pineapple production – and  getting to taste some of the sweetest pineapples ever…..he remarkably shows no bitterness at all when he tells me that the US destroyed the gains of the revolution.

PS I have found a way of giving a little bit of financial help to Don Wilbur – his wife has agreed to sell me some plants form her exquisite garden!!!

La Mariposa has never looked so green….the trees, plants and flowers that we have been planting in every conceivable space are now giving us their full glory. It has got to the point where it is almost impossible to plant anything which requires full sunlight as we have put in so many trees and they grow so ashtonishly fast that La Mariposa now bears no resemblance whatsoever to the vast dusty building site of only 3 years ago – now unregconisably shady, green and lush.

Of course the wet season which started a couple of months ago has brought everything on enormously – it is mostly raining at night so the mornings are cool, sunny and totally delightful. We have apparently just had our first passing hurricane (Andrea or something similar) but it just gave us a short, but torrential downpour last night.

We have rented a small piece of land way up in Palo Solo (up on the ridge behind us) and have planted – naturally enough – beans,  some corn, a root veggie called quesique and we are going to put in a couple of different kinds of squash. I am battling to disuade the guys from fumigation, and succeeded in persuading them to instead give employment to a group of local men to weed the land  It is on an incredibly steep hillside, I tell you I have so much more respect for the utterly backbreaking work that campesinos have to do here and in other poor countries. But we shall have our first (almost) organic bean crop at the end of July – just about two months. Amazing.  I am planning to save up and buy some land in the same place to set up a totally organic farm, maybe even with a small amount of livestock. On the same subject we seem to be doing well now with our chickens, getting between 7 and 10 eggs per day which is very exciting……they are called here “huevos del amor” literally love eggs!! To distinguish them from battery eggs.

The Mariposa animal population is generally stable now – at 5 adult cats, 6 dogs – we did take in Foxy from the streets of Granada but she is no problem. Unlike Molly who is still the toe-rag of the group – if she isn’t jumping at someone she is chasing chickens and/or ducks. And we have built large (and I mean large) cages for the 4 capuchin monkeys who are now so tame that we probably can’t release them. And of course the very noisy parrotts. One of the monkeys amuses everyone by living outside the cage but he likes to stay close to his friends so he doesn’t go far. Just destroys any tree or plant he can find – he loves to hide in the orange tree and throw down baby oranges just for fun!! So apart from the fact that two of our mares are about to foal (I am rather nervous as one of them, Coralee, lost her last foal in birth so fingers crossed for her), we have no current plans to increase the number of animals. People-wise all is good – we had a very hard time in May, a disastrous combination of events which even those of you with top-notch business degrees would have had difficulty foreseeing! Our microbus blew up and had to be replaced (took every dollar we had saved) and the numbers of students just collapsed on us. Whether because of the dip in the world economy or because its the first month in the rainy season, I have no idea. But we do seem to be recovering and the workers I had to lay off for a while are now almost all back at their posts!! The Nicaraguan news now is full of doom about the forthcoming loss of jobs here, clearly the collapse of capitalism will hit poor “Third World” people harder, just as its rise did! Which, on the tiny scale of the Mariposa, makes everything that we can do even more important.

Lots of happenings at the Mariposa over the Xmas period, photographed by Steve Pollock, one of the Spanish students who celebrated the festivities with us and kindly said we could use his photos – starting at the end of November with the coffee harvest which has to be done in two parts as the berries don’t all ripen at the same time.  We are now including an afternoon activity picking the beans and then visiting a processing plant to see what happens – it’s actually pretty complicated and though I have now been two or three time I still can’t describe for certain how the process works – though at least the basics of drying in the sun, taking off the shell, taking off the shell again and then toasting and milling are fairly obvious. The processing plants have machinary which in some cases is over a hundred years old (health and safety fanatics have to look the other way) and one small plant (ie the back patio of a house in San Marcos) uses a standard fan to lieterally blow away the shells of the beans…..fascinating and helps one appreciate that morning cup of cafeine. We have hopefully harvested enough to see us thorough the year.

Paulette, Ismael and Cassidy bringing in the coffee harvest

But the big event of course was the party we had at the Mariposa for the primary age school kids  from Panama.  Over a hundred, plus assorted teachers, had to be collected from Panama and brought to the Mariposa. It took several microbus journeys and the first to arrive sat incredibly patiently waiting for their classmates to arrive.  They all enjoyed being introduced to Suki, our ocelot kitten (who is getting pretty big now but she’s fairly tame as we had to hand rear her) and our newest animal arrival, Suki Junior (a tiny ocelot kitten who is much wilder and still has to be given her own name!!).

Ismael, Daniel, Suki, Cabezon, Franklin taking it easy before the onslaught of kids

As you can see from the pic, Suki likes to play with the dogs. Cabezon (which means Big Head!) is not one of our dogs, he belongs to Daniel but follows him absolutely everywhere. When Daniel goes to the loo he sits outside wimpering!!! he looks such a toughie…..we do hav eanother rescued dog, a little sweetie called Foxy for obvious reasons. Enough dogs. But we hav egiven away all our rescued kittens (that was hard) so our number of cats has gone down from 13 to 5!!!

Panama kids waiting patiently for the festivities to begin

You can just see our wonderful (best and cheapest I’ve ever had) Xmas tree in the background – made form a dead coffee tree branch and decorated by Guillermina and Cassidy.

Paulette and Bergman also waiting but not so patiently!

The party was a huge success, the kids had a semi-nutritious meal of rice and chicken, cooked on our open cooker which uses firewood gathered in our little piece of land. They had cake and, of course, a pinata which showers sweets over everyone and sends the kids mad with delight……

Melba and Chayo cooking up a treat

Say hi to everyone

Guillermina doing her thing

Just a great picture

Finalmente - la pinata

This blog may well be the nearest I get to wishing everyone out there – old friends, new friends and friends of the Mariposa a very happy Xmas and a great new year in 2009.  We are really gearing up for Xmas here, I have no idea how it is going to turn out!! Could all be  a complete disaster or really good fun or a combination of both (most likely the latter). Guillermina and Cassidy (our youngest guest at five years old) spent a couple of Spanish classes putting up the  Xmas tree and it is the BEST!!! It consists of a dead coffee tree branch stuck in a pot (we have also just done the coffee harvest and those of you who have tasted the Mariposa coffee will know how exciting that news is!) covered in silver paper and with all of my ancient decorations from the UK plus afew newer acquistions. And lights of course….one of the guests commented it looks like something out of  aVogue magazine…….We have a lunchtime party here at the mariposa tomorrow (the 20th dec) for over a 100 of the primary aged kids from Panama – we have to get them all here which means a few journeys in the bus and the camionetta…..then we are doing lunch, a cake, pinatas and hopefully we can get the kids to play some games. The general behaviour of kids at parties here is to sit absolutely still in a circle of plastic chairs and not respond to any entreaties from strange extranjeras to dance, play games or otherwise have fun; but then go absolutely wild when the pinata gets strung up….I will try and post some photos. The 24th is the traditional Xmas meal here and we doing one for all of the workers and their families which will involve, again, over 100 people! I am really keen to do it though as a way of saying thank you – we now have at the Mariposa (and I really don’t know anyone who has stayed here who would disagree with me) the best team in the world…..to the point that, in October, when we were really low in numbers and funds everyone worked for over a month on half pay. So I am going to make  a little speech….that will be some test of my Spanish and I think I might get a little over emotional!! Then the 25th all of the guests (did I mention we are full over Xmas, throughout January and into Febuary????) and all of the workers are going to the beach….I don’t know how yet but Ismael and Bergman are organising it……

Well, that’s it for the Xmas post……I hope the rest of the world in 2009 can take from the incredible spirit and humour that Nicaraguans use to get them through the tough times…….and most importantly I hope the big powerful nations learn a bit of humility and stop punishing the little guys!! Is that too much to ask for?????

PANAMA PRE-SCHOOL UPDATE – 5^th October 2008

Last Friday was a very special day – the current group of guests at the Mariposa helped to organise the inauguration of the little (but perfectly formed) pre-school extension which we have built (well, Bismark, whom many of you know actually did the building of course) with the help and donations of a number of friends of Panama School and ex-Mariposa students. The extension has been painted in a number of very bright colours, chosen by the pre-schoolers. We had enough paint to do the already existing pre-school classroom as well, so the whole area looks really bright and cheerful now.

 The extension has been fitted out with soft, washable, flooring (consisting of yoga mats which a few of our guests donated); and Bismark has constructed some terrific shelves. They are made out of the same cane which we have used in the hotel bathroom doors and small cupboards – cane instead of wood as it is much more sustainable (and somewhat cheaper) and also we can buy it from a local farmer. The group of current Mariposa students had arranged all of the donations of stationary, pencils, paints, toys on the shelves  – it looks really great. Hector, looking stunning in a blue flowery shirt – not at all his usual school uniform! –  said he had no idea I had been secretly amassing such a lot of stuff in the Mariposa library!! 

The opening ceremony itself was, as you can imagine, very moving and I just kept wishing that you all could have been there too. It was quite formal in the Nicaraguan style of doing these things; with various dignitaries saying their  few words; the kids singing the national anthem several times; all interspersed with music and folkloric dancing, all arranged by Hector I think. It was just lovely and I don’t think I was the only one with tears in my eyes. My contribution was to cut a piece of blue crepe paper with a pair of kid’s scissors and declare the whole thing open for business.

Then everyone traipsed off for a nutritious meal, donated by the current group of Mariposa students, accompanied with a fresco of Mariposa organic papaya…..

NOW……we are not quite finished yet!!!

·        Hector has asked if we can help extend the rainwater collection system which has been installed. Rainwater is one thing there is no shortage of right now…..and we will happily send over a bit of tubing plus Bismark for a day or two.

·        The plan is to put big, squashy, comfy cushions in the new area for kids to sit around informally in a circle – we have purchased the materials and will get them made up this week.

·        We are going to try and buy some more second hand stuffed toys, tennis balls etc. in the Jinotepe market so the kids get to play sometimes as well as read.

FOR THE NEXT TWO ITEMS WE STILL NEED MORE HELP…….

• We can purchase stationary etc here in Nicaragua – what we CANNOT GET IS SPANISH BOOKS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. We need more of those – you do not need to send a huge parcel (actually better not to use the big transporters like DHL as it costs a fortune to get the boxes out of customs), just a package of one story book, or picture dictionary, BUT SIX COPIES……so the kids can read the same book together in small groups. You can send packages of up to six items to me via the normal post perfectly well. Maybe instead of a Xmas pressie you could send me six Spanish language children’s books……

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL…….

• I have arranged with MINED (the Ministry for education) and the head teacher of the school that they will employ a full time pre-school teacher or, more likely, two part time teachers. We will pay the cost of this. Which will be in the region of $80 per week. So any contribution to this would be gratefully received….I will send my UK bank details to anyone who wants to contribute.

The address for parcels is;

La Mariposa Escuela de Espanol

San Juan de la Concepcion

Masaya

Nicaragua

Once again, many many thanks to everyone who has contributed time, energy, fun,, money, donations, goodwill to the Panama School. Hector and the kids send their love!!!

Municipal elections are due to be held in Nicaragua in November. On the global scale they won’t register as of much importance but actually they, as everything here, reflect the international imbalance of power. Within Nicaragua, they are arousing a level of passion in some parts of the country leading to a degree of violence with Sandinista supporters recently in Leon attacking some members of an opposition march and burning a couple of the oppostion leader’s vehicles. It is a real shame to see this because mostly the democratic political process is pretty good here and certainly no more (or less) corrupt than in many parts of the world (including so-called developed countries). Here in La Concha the worst effect so far has been the dreadful, and very loud, music which accompanies the campaigning groups, riding around advertsing their party from the back of a pick up truck. But it is not simply a Nicaraguan issue – as the situation is made much more volatile by the fact that the US government still channels funds to several oppostion parties/groups, as it has done since at least the 1980s, which incenses both Sandinista fanatics and many “ordinary Nicaraguans”. People with whom I have discussed the issue here in La Concha are firmly of the opinion that, whatever else, Nicaragua should be able to work out its political processes without the interference of the world’s superpower and  Nicaragua’s too close and overbearing neighbour.

It will of course be important to us at the Mariposa who is elected Mayor of La Concha – the Sandinista candiadate has a good reputation of anti-corruption and I am hoping he will be sympathetic to the idea of promoting the benefits of a (genuine – there is a lot of the fake variety around)) eco-tourism. When the Mariposa is full (and we are now fully booked for most of November and January next year with a number of bookings in December and Febuary – October is proving to be our hardest month, I think) we can employ over 25 people which means economic help to them and their families, plus the money that they and the Mariposa directly spend in the community. We have just, as a small example of what we try and do, started buying milk from a local cow via a middle-woman which means a few pesos/pence/cents more every day directly into a poor family and via them, into the local community. Not much, in the grand scale of things, but better than a slap in the face!! That all makes us the largest local employer after the Town Hall. So we have some clout and I am hopeful we can work together with the new mayor (as we have been able to some extent with the existing mayor) to work on strategies for increasing employment and conserving the environment – without which there could be no eco-tourism in its real sense!!

Not to be confused with eco-tourism, sex tourism has hit the Mariposa. We now have experienced two examples (that I know of) of aging women quite deliberately approaching one or more of the guys who work at the Mariposa with the intention of having (paid though not neccessarily in money) sex. I don’t think we have had any men yet – they seem to prefer the city ambience of Granada and San Juan del Sur where the sex trade, including child sex trade, is flourishing. Though maybe they are better at operating clandestinely! One woman actually told me what she had done. I do not know her motivation for telling me of her exploits, I think possibly she is racist enough to think I would not care and would collude with her. Actually I threw her out. Some time later, she sent me an email saying she had just wanted to know she was still desirable! It never, for one moment, occured to me that this would be one of the problems here – but it seems as if the ways the developed world has of taking from the people of the so-called “Third World” is never-ending in its variety of objects of pure theft, from natural resources to cheap labour to sex. I have a feeling I will get some comments re this!!

I recently received a newsletter from the excellent Nicaragua Network with the following information -  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Sept. 11 the release of the first US$28.4 million of its loan agreement with Nicaragua and increased the total of US$120.4 million by an additional US$10 million citing its approval of Nicaragua’s performance. In the communiqué, Takatoshi Kato, one of the Fund’s managing sub-directors, described the macroeconomic policy of Nicaragua as “prudent” and the economic program as “generally satisfactory.”

He did note, however, that growth has slowed and inflation has reached double digits, principally because of the rise in the price of food and oil, while the trade deficit has widened. “It will be crucial,” he said, “to control public expenditures during the upcoming electoral period.” He also repeated the IMF’s neoliberal agenda advising the government to “contain wage pressures” and not to cede ground in current discussions over the national minimum wage. Nicaragua’s wages for essential public service jobs continue to be the lowest in Central America. On Sept. 12 El Nuevo Diario reported a shortage of nurses whose US$200 monthly salary is causing them to migrate to higher paying countries.

Those of you who have visited the Panama School with us will know how much Nicaragua can afford to cut its public expenditure!!! I wish I could show the IMF around!!!